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26 December 2013

750 point tournament: Christened in Battle

This past weekend I attended two tournaments, the second of which was 750 pts full wysiwyg and full paint. There was limited space but a lot of people turned up so games were played on a half table. This benefitted so up armies in some situations a lot more than others...

My list 750 pts Iron Hands:

Master of the forge

5 scouts,heavy bolter

5 tactical marines, meltagun, melta bombs

Land raider redeemer, multi-melta, extra armour

Land raider

The idea was that heldrakes don't scare me and I bring something no one expects to see, and two of them at that. For people who had not come prepared this was likely to be a shock. I was also aware that at the same time I could come up with some very bad match-ups for me to the extent where I am hoping for the best shooting with two lascannons while being torn apart by a stromraven.

Also of note is the fact that I finally dug up my half-built land raider that I had lying around from what? 6 years ago now? So I fixed it up and got 3 colours on it...

Game 1 vs Necrons

Lord with scythe, resurrection orb

Cryptek with str 8 ap 1 flamer

Secondary lord with res orb and scythe

2x 10 warriors

Annihilation barge

Ghost ark

Mission is big guns never tire with four objectives and 5th ed spearhead deployment.

I am given turn 1 and as my warlord trait get night which I take advantage of. I move up, taking pot shots as I go but do no damage. Turn 2 my opponent jumps out and uses his gauss flayers to try and do some damage to my land raider redeemer. He then charges in but his lord doesn't get the required explosion. In my turn I take down his annihilation barge for first blood, regain my hps/fix myself.

He starts trying to teleport his non- reserved squad but they mishap for two turns in a row and get delayed. Meanwhile my land raider explodes, but in return I've killed a full squad of warriors and his second lord. I also get into close combat with his ghost ark and wreck it over the course of two turns. In the end it's just a matter of scoring lots of objectives and splitting up so my opponent cannot possibly knock me off.

Game ends turn 6 just after my opponent scatters off an objective with a teleport and leaves me with 2 objectives, line breaker and first blood to his linebreaker. The score is 9-2 and we have a bit of difference in VPs scored so it's 14-6 in terms of tournament points.

Game 2 - vs Dark Angels and Imperial Guard

Azrael (with a force field)

3 bikes, meltagun

5 scouts, snipers, camo-cloaks, missile launcher

CCS, lascannon, chimera

3 infantry squads, meltabombs, 2 autocannons, 1 lascannon

PCS with las guns I think

Mission: We played this wrong and thought it was scouring but it was a 3, 2 and 1 pt objective to be placed by each player with fast attack scoring and giving up points. Deployment was vanguard strike I think.

I lost the roll-off to choose sides and also for first turn. He deploys all his stuff in a large pile in his corner, with the chimera at the back holding the pcs, the scouts in the woods, and Azrael and the blob in front. PCS is in reserve, bikers outflank.

I try to counter this and get cover but find that it's actually quite hard to even fit my land raiders in my dz. my warlord trait was -1 to my opponents' reserve rolls.

Turn 1 he shoots my land raider for no effect or maybe takes off an hp which I then regain in my turn. My turn I sort of swivel and kill of 3 guardsmen from the blob. Redeemer goes full speed ahead behind the large Los-blocker.

None of his reserves come in but he manages to immobilise my land raider. The tech marine gets out of the redeemer and runs back to fix it. I move my redeemer out slightly to tempt the blob to come forward and also to stay away from the edges of the table where I expect the bikers to come out of.

Bikers come in and don't whiff majestically at the land raider. I then get out with scouts and master of the forge, shoot and then assault but then somehow fail to kill the last standing biker for pretty much until turn 7. Meanwhile my redeemer keeps failing to kill the chimera, squashes a sergeant in a tank shock and survives being charged by meltabombs for a turn, although it does get immobilised. This doesn't stop it from roasting many of the conveniently bunched up guardsmen that are surrounding it. It eventually explodes however, and my marines pile out and explode the chimera killing most of the command squad and half the scouts. Neither of the squads run away.

The PCS comes in and in a last ditch effort to get a tie I try to stop it from scoring on an objective but one guy lying face down in the dirt for a 3+ cover save survives, doesn't flee either and wins my opponent the game as it ends turn 7.

It ends 9-4, which would have been 8-3 if we'd played the mission properly (I would have held a 3 pointer instead of a 4 and my opponent would not be able to hold two 3 pointers). In any case, a little unlucky but oh well, 12-8 loss in terms of tournament points.

I'm given first turn, but my opponent chooses sides and gives me one with lots of terrain in which to immobilise my tanks. I try to place the two land raiders into relatively open movement paths while retaining some form of cover for turn 1.

My opponent places his two heavy tanks either side. CCS hiding and the librarian giving an invuln to both veteran squads and one of the two Russes. The scouts outflank.

Turn 1 and the redeemer goes full speed ahead. The other land raider takes it slightly easier and tries to shoot at the leman Russ but the lascannon round bounces off the force field and dissipates. I want to hopefully get into assault turn two and limit the amount of firepower going into my land raiders. One lascannon is a lot less scary than two!

The lascannons get prescienced/ordered to bring it down but fail to make a mark. One does scratch the paintwork taking away a hull point but it will not die repairs this very quickly.

Turn 2 and what I think is the crucial moment of the match happens. Master of the forge and tacticals disembark and split up. My warlord flames and charges a squad of veterans, and shooting followed by an assault explodes the leman Russ. I breathe a sigh of relief as a lascannon hits my master of the forge on over watch but tragically fails to wound him. Had this not happened my opponent would have suddenly had first blood, slay the warlord, and two fully functioning lascannons!

The game boils down to a brawl which is joined by a line surviving tactical marine and the librarian. After several turns of incredible failures, my warlord and the libby knock each other out and my last tactical marine is cut down by a pile of bayonets. It is too little too late however as meanwhile I've exploded the other leman Russ, killed the outflanking scouts and can turn my remaining forces to burning down th remaining veterans while my scouts seize the relic.

Unfortunately it ends in a wipeout which gives no credit to my opponent's valiant efforts in what was definitely a bad match-up for him and gives me a 20-0 win through a massacre.

At this stage I somehow end up in 5th place out of 22, but since the rounds have gone 3 hours quicker than planned, the judge organises another round.

Game 4 - vs Grey knight henchman spam

Coteaz

Inquisitor with 2 servo skulls

4 servitors, 2x melta, 2x multi-melta in chimera

5 warrior acolytes with storm bolsters, chimera

Some other peeps in a chimera

2 squads of something else that can't hurt (heavy bolters I think) land raiders in razorbacks with heavy bolters with psybolt amo

Rifleman dread with psybolt amo

Mission: crusade 3 objectives, 1 in the centre and two more placed by the players. Standard deployment.

Feeling really tired at this point, as this is the first time I've played in two consecutive tournaments. However, this still doesn't excuse the fatal mistakes that I made. Opponent wins the roll off to go first. I get night attacker and use it. He deploys castled up with the important chimera with coteaz and meltas in hidden. I try to seize, get it but coteaz forces me to reroll and I fail.

The two razorback light up my land raider and it receives a hull point of damage from the dreadnought. I move up cautiously and take a pot shot, immobilising a razorback.

In return, coteaz chimera rumbles up and the prescienced multi-meltas manage to stun my redeemer. Extra armour shrugs this off to a shaken. I then move up and hope that everything I have will be able to explode the chimera as I'm hitting side armour and allow me to flame the servitors and coteaz inside, effectively winning the game. I forget that I'm shaken and that therefore cannot fire my flame storm cannons. To make matters worse, the chimera was precognitioned, and so I barely manage to immobilise it and leave it on one hull point.

Obviously in response coteaz and meltas get out and blow my redeemer sky high. The rest of the army picks everyone apart who survives the blast except for my master of the forge who is left on one wound.

Master of the forge runs back towards my remaining land raider and regains his lost wound. However he gets stuck in the wreckage of the redeemer and doesn't make it. This means that my other land raider which moved forwards to collect him is now in melta range. It too explodes and the rest of the inquisitorial shooting leaves me with a single scout who scarpers off into the ruins and prays to survive. He is quickly dispatched by some ignores cover shooting as the other inquisitor - not coteaz had perfect timing.

Game ends with a wipeout and my only major loss oft he torunament. 20-0.

Overall I finish in 9th place, moderately pleased with myself. If I'd won my last match I'd have had a good shot at placing in the top 3.

About the list:

At 750 pts it was obvious from the dirty looks that some people gave my army that people were simply not expecting to see two land raiders! However, they are obviously not the end-all-be-all by any means and anyone with a couple of meltaguns would manage to put up a decent fight.

Lots of mean lists at the tournament although we didn't see the dreaded double helldrake list. In case you're interested the winning list was along these lines:

"The game boils down to a brawl which is joined by a line surviving tactical marine and Azrael. After several turns of incredible failures, my warlord and the libby knock each other out and my last tactical marine is cut down by a pile of bayonets. "